1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminating apparatus used with an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile and the like and adapted to perform a laminating treatment for the purpose of improving the appearance and the preservation of a sheet and the like (object to be laminated) on which an image was formed.
2. Related Background Art
The laminating treatment effected by such a laminating apparatus generally comprises the step of sealingly covering both surfaces of a sheet-like object to be laminated by two laminate films. For example, the laminating treatment is effected in such a manner that the object to be laminated is introduced into the laminating apparatus from a supply table disposed at a side of the laminating apparatus, and the object to be laminated is conveyed together with upper and lower heat-reactive laminate films with the interposition of the object between the films, meanwhile the films are laminated to the object to be laminated from above and below by applying heat and pressure to the overlapped object and films.
In such laminating apparatuses, when an object having an indeterminate form (a strip-shaped object having an indefinite length) is laminated, conventionally, the start and stop of the laminating treatment was effected by an ON/OFF switch (manual switch). That is, when the switched was turned ON the laminating treatment was started, and when the switch was turned OFF the laminating treatment was stopped. In a condition that the switch was turned ON, the object to be laminated was set on the supply table.
However, in such a conventional technique, since the laminate films continued to be conveyed while the object having the indeterminate form to be laminated was being set on the supply table, a certain amount of laminate films was used in vain. Further, in such a conventional technique, since the laminate films could not be cut accurately in registration with leading and trailing ends of the object to be laminated after the laminating operation, an additional trimming operation for cutting off the excessive laminate films in registration with the configuration of the object was required, thus making the laminating treatment troublesome and wasting the laminate films.